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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29964504">playin' the star again</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/benshe/pseuds/benshe'>benshe</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Julie and The Phantoms (TV 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Gender Identity, Trans Character, Trans Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms), but maybe not how you think?</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 02:22:08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>820</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29964504</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/benshe/pseuds/benshe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It wasn't until after Reggie died that he even tried to figure out his identity.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Reggie Peters &amp; Julie Molina</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>playin' the star again</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>ok some gender feelings dump sorry. super self-indulgent but what fic isnt?</p><p>title from turn the page by bob seger which doesnt fit but is also very Gender so i used it sorry</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It wasn't until after Reggie died that he even tried to figure out his identity.</p><p>Gender was barely something you thought about in 1995, but it was now 2020! Alex said things were totally different now, and Alex was the only one of the three of them to make any friends that weren't Julie. </p><p>After much thought, he broached the topic with Julie at a quiet moment in her room.</p><p>"Hey, Jules?" </p><p>"Yeah, Reg?</p><p>"Do you see me as a guy?"</p><p>"I mean yeah, you're one of the guys, right?" Julie said, just before it clicked why Reggie would ask that. "...but not if you don't want me to…" she added quickly.</p><p>"I don't know if i want to be 'one of the guys', I don't know. Maybe 'guy' is ok, but I never liked the idea of being a man. I mean, I didn't really get to that point, but maybe that's good? I used to get so freaked out thinking about what was expected of me, not just in general, but specifically because of my gender. I'm rambling, sorry."</p><p>"No, it's ok. These are big thoughts, they require big responses, right?" </p><p>"Maybe." Reggie answered quietly. "I'm just so confused."</p><p>"So how can we process the confusion? Do you process by talking, or writing? You don't have to do this alone. I'm here." </p><p>Tears welled up in Reggie's eyes. He knew Julie was good at things, but this good? </p><p>"I'm glad you're here…" </p><p>Julie smiled. "I have an idea." </p><p>She brought Reggie over to her makeup table. </p><p>"We don't have to do this if it's overwhelming, and we don't have to do it today, but I thought it might help to have something to do while we talk."</p><p>Reggie let out a small laugh/exhale and thought about it for a moment. "Just so we have something to do while we're talking…" he said, still embarrassed at the thought of wanting to do feminine things. </p><p>"So," Julie started. "Where to begin?" </p><p>"I don't know." Reggie sat down. "I don't know how other people feel so sure of who they are." </p><p>"We'll probably not use my or Flynn's foundation on you, might be a biiit too dark. But we can start with some primer, which is this one." She hands him the small bottle to figure out. "And yeah, we did this activity in my health class. They brought in a gender studies professor from the affiliate college, and she had us 'examine our biases'. Like, we're doing makeup right now, but that doesn't mean we're both girls." </p><p>"I don't understand…" Reggie was still holding the primer bottle, looking down at it in confusion. </p><p>"Ok we'll start simpler. More simply? I don't know english." She took back the primer bottle and applied some to her own face. She couldn't touch him, but she could give him a model of what to do. "When we're growing up, we're told all these things girls and boys do differently. And maybe those are true in general trends, but there are girls who like trucks and boys who like dolls. I liked playing soccer as a kid, and music, and those things don't necessarily have a gender idea attached to them." </p><p>Reggie followed what Julie was doing with the primer, and listened intently. </p><p>"Some people have a different gender than what they were told at first. And some people, like music and soccer, don't necessarily have 'girl' or 'boy' attached to them." </p><p>"That's an option?" Reggie said out loud before his brain could compute. </p><p>"Yes, absolutely. You can have no gender, or more than one, or a mix, or anything." </p><p>"A mix…" he said, again without thinking. There were so many thoughts swirling around in his head. </p><p>By the time Reggie had figured out how to actually use eyeliner (which took a while), Julie had explained to him all kinds of new thoughts about gender, and he had processed a little bit more of where he was at. </p><p>“Ugh, I wish I could take a picture.” Julie said in a way that could’ve been read as sarcastic, but Reg knew she was genuinely encouraging. </p><p>He looked in the mirror. He never knew what he wanted himself to look like, really. There were things about his face he liked, his natural blush and the warmness of his dark eyes, but there were also parts of his face that he wasn’t as happy with. All the while, he never thought of his aspirations as a visual as much as a ‘vibe’, as Julie would say. He wanted to be a lady like the badass lady bass players he had seen, and he wanted to be a man like the cool flamboyant performers he had seen. He wanted to be a mix, and somehow Julie had brought him closer to that. </p><p>“Thanks, Jules.” he said quietly. He was so much closer to where he wanted to be.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>follow my jatp tumblr at regiepeters and give me attention cuz no one else will!!! also nice comments=LOVE U FOREVER</p></blockquote></div></div>
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